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Picked this up a few days ago. This had been sitting at one of my local non box store music stores for about 7 months. I had eyeballed it quite a few times, stopping there every so often. One day I decided to try it out and I was shocked at how great it played and sounded. The store that had it is one of those places loaded with Gibson and Fender and I'm convinced they frown on any "shred-like" guitar. Needless to say, I got it for a very good price because they just wanted to move it from their inventory. It was labeled used but in brand new condition.
I put new strings on it and set the bridge height to where I like it. I played it for 2 1/2 hours straight at rehearsal and my conclusion is that I really like this guitar a lot.
I was very hesitant to buy an LTD (or any Korean guitar for that matter) but I have to say this thing rivals some real high end guitars. I hear a fair share of people refer to LTD's as (L.ick T.he D.umpster) guitars, which is really very funny, but this thing plays damn good and I'm accustomed to relatively high end Kramers', B.C. Rich's, and Jackson's.
The build quality is top notch, acoustically, the guitar has a very loud sound and great resonance, the pickups sound great..I was concerned about the Screamin' Demon because I've never liked that pickup in anything I've tried it in but it sounds nice in this guitar. The single coil sounds great especially with clean tones. The fret ends are finished like what I see on custom shop guitars-that was a shocker, nice and rounded and you don't feel them running your hand on the edge of the neck. Another nice cosmetic touch is the abalone dot inlays on the neck. The neck is thicker than what I'm traditionally used to but comfortable. I think the factory listing of "thin u-neck contour" is slightly misleading. U shape, yes, but not exactly thin by any means. Now my only concern about the guitar, and surely something I can live with, is that there is no beveled edge where your picking arm rests on the guitar. It has a flat top. Something I'm not used too, so it felt a little weird. I only noticed this while playing in a standing position..sitting it's pretty much unnoticeable. Also, and utterly trivial, the ESP case is very flimsy but fits the guitar well. Otherwise, totally happy with this guitar and I'll be using it for part of the set list tonight at a gig.
Specs on the guitar:
Here's one of my quality (crap) cell phone pics...and one factory pic to see the guitar more clearly:
I put new strings on it and set the bridge height to where I like it. I played it for 2 1/2 hours straight at rehearsal and my conclusion is that I really like this guitar a lot.
I was very hesitant to buy an LTD (or any Korean guitar for that matter) but I have to say this thing rivals some real high end guitars. I hear a fair share of people refer to LTD's as (L.ick T.he D.umpster) guitars, which is really very funny, but this thing plays damn good and I'm accustomed to relatively high end Kramers', B.C. Rich's, and Jackson's.
The build quality is top notch, acoustically, the guitar has a very loud sound and great resonance, the pickups sound great..I was concerned about the Screamin' Demon because I've never liked that pickup in anything I've tried it in but it sounds nice in this guitar. The single coil sounds great especially with clean tones. The fret ends are finished like what I see on custom shop guitars-that was a shocker, nice and rounded and you don't feel them running your hand on the edge of the neck. Another nice cosmetic touch is the abalone dot inlays on the neck. The neck is thicker than what I'm traditionally used to but comfortable. I think the factory listing of "thin u-neck contour" is slightly misleading. U shape, yes, but not exactly thin by any means. Now my only concern about the guitar, and surely something I can live with, is that there is no beveled edge where your picking arm rests on the guitar. It has a flat top. Something I'm not used too, so it felt a little weird. I only noticed this while playing in a standing position..sitting it's pretty much unnoticeable. Also, and utterly trivial, the ESP case is very flimsy but fits the guitar well. Otherwise, totally happy with this guitar and I'll be using it for part of the set list tonight at a gig.
Specs on the guitar:
- Swamp ash body
- 25-1/2" scale
- Bolt-on maple neck
- Reverse headstock
- Rosewood fretboard
- Thin U neck contour
- 22 extra-jumbo frets
- 43mm neck width
- Floyd Rose 1000 Series tremolo bridge
- Locking nut
- Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon bridge humbucker
- ESP LS-100 neck single-coil pickup
- Volume control
- ESP tuners
- Black hardware
- Black finish with serpent graphic
Here's one of my quality (crap) cell phone pics...and one factory pic to see the guitar more clearly:
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